I guess I could consider this my first major contribution to the online DJ community, and given the relative lack of stuff out there already, I thought it would be nice to give my perspective on the Novation Twitch.
As a bit of background, I don’t fall into any strict controllerist camp or anything. I’m currently overseas, but my setup back home consists of CDJ800’s, 1210’s and a Korg Zero 4, with TSP looking after the 1210’s and the CDJ’s doing their bit for the shiny physical media.
When I came to the US in November, I brought with me my VCI-100 with FW1.4, my audio 8 and an X1. I’ve been quite happy with the setup so far, using the X1 mainly for effects. However lugging the VCI-100 around has demonstrated that although small physically, it wasn’t exactly portable due to the weight. When the twitch came around, I thought it might be worth a shot, providing a different “back to basics” feel with ITCH, but still giving me some extra performance modes to branch out creatively.
So I’ll summarize my thoughts in a few points:
- Lightweight, but feels relatively sturdy as an overall unit
- Knobs and Faders feel a little cheaply made, but are adequate. I would much prefer Novation move to a grippier plastic for their knobs and faders though, they don’t feel very nice to the touch, and are difficult to adjust in small increments
- EQ Knobs are spaced a little tightly, but there is a lot of room around the faders
- The crossfader is replaceable (here’s hoping an innofader can get in there at some point!)
- ITCH integration is great, and it’s really refreshing to be playing with software that lets you stop focusing on the software. Performing with itch is very nice for 2 deck mixing with EQ’s and the odd filter work with the fader effects mode. I do wish we had dedicated LPF/HPF filter knobs though in ITCH like they do in the Traktor mapping
- Manually beatmatching with the touchstrip is very intuitive, and in my opinion superior to manually beatmatching on the VCI-100 jogs
- Slicer is an incredible tool, which has a lot of potential once it’s mastered and used properly
- Track navigation/loading is great
- Effects implementation is a bit dodgy in ITCH, but we all knew that anyway. I would probably stick with the X1 for effects mapping if I were to use the Twitch in Traktor.
- I don’t know why everyone is complaining about the low sound output from the audio interface, it’s fine in my opinion.
- Sounds very nice, and the booth routing options are a nice touch
- Aux input is very handy, I think I’ll be connecting my synthstation 25 for some pseudo-analog synth fun.
Overall, very happy with the unit, to the point where it looks likely I’ll be selling off the VCI-100.
Any questions, feel free to ask me!
Cheers,
Ron
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